it's so hard to keep the smile from my face
by piperreynas
Summary: an enemies to friends au. or: "promise that you'll be you forever." percy/annabeth, appearances by frederick chase and sally jackson.


Percy's skateboarding the first time he meets her. He's trying to pull off this new trick he saw on YouTube when a girl shoves past him and he falls to the floor. There's a second in between, when he doesn't know what's going on and he's suspended in the air, weightless, before he hits the pavement, scraping his knee and ripping the denim of his blue jeans. He pops back up right after though, and he's already decided that he hates her, whoever she is. "Hey!" he yells indignantly.

She turns back around frowning, her blond hair flying into her face (and then another person's face) as she tries to get a good look at him. "What?" she shouts back, from the end of the street (which, really, isn't that far).

"Why'd you push me over?" he says. "You scraped my knee!"

"Are you going to cry now?" she sneers, placing a hand on her waist and cocking her hip. "You were in my way."

Percy snarls angrily and picks up a rock, then immediately chucks it at her. It hits a food truck next to her with a soft plink. She stares at the tiny dent for a while before turning to him, sneering once more, and then flouncing away.

He frowns for the next hour.

; ;

He sees her again at the playground a week later, swinging on the swing set alone. She's got weird hair, he thinks. It's curly and shiny, and he wonders if it's anything like the springs he sees on TV, so he walks up to her really quietly, and tugs on one of her butter-yellow curls.

It does bounce, he notices, and then he's on his back with a girl sprawled over hip trying to poke him in the eye and he comes back to himself, twisting and trying to throw her off him and that is how they stay until their parents find them, grappling by the swings so viciously that all the other children are afraid to come near them.

When they are finally dragged apart, her once white dress is muddy and he has dirt in his mouth and blood on his lip. They study each other, and their parents hold their arms warily, until he grins. "I'm Percy," he says, spitting out mud. Or was that blood?

She grins back. "Annabeth."

They bake cookies together, as a bonding exercise because Mr. Frederick is a child psychologist and doing things together is supposed to help them see things from each other's point of view. He doesn't listen to Mr. Frederick very much, but neither does Annabeth. (He learns this is called mirroring from Mr. Frederick).

His mom helps them bake. His mom is the best mom _ever_.

; ;

They like swinging together at the park. Annabeth always turns it into a competition and Percy likes Annabeth so he lets her win all the time. She doesn't ever notice.

He likes watching her hair when she swings, so that's all he does when he's supposed to be trying to beat her. Her hair bounces and curls and twists with the wind and sometimes the sun hits it just right and it looks like gold.

He really likes her hair. He likes all of Annabeth.

; ;

They build a pillow fort, once. His mom makes a batch of cookies for them and goes to work on the books she's writing. He's never been able to read well, but he's proud of her. Annabeth comes up with the idea first, and he tries to help but every time he tries to place a pillow everything else falls down and Annabeth laughs. "Let me do the rest okay, Percy?"

He frowns. "Okay." She does this _thing_ when she's thinking really hard, where she scrunches up her eyebrows and her tongue sticks out of her mouth that's just adorable and…what?

She turns to him with a bright smile on her face. "What do you think?" she breathes, waving her hands in a grand sweeping gesture, and humming a little fanfare.

He shakes himself and smiles back. "It's great!"

Later, after they've finished all the cookies and their stomachs are full of chocolate and warm milk and their eyes are steadily drooping, Percy turns to Annabeth, and watches the light filter through the sheer pink blanket, watches the way the light hits her face, watches her sigh in contentment, and he never wants this to end. "Percy?" she says, her eyes still almost-closed.

He looks up quickly at the blankets again, a flush rising at his neck. It's even harder now to tear his gaze away from her face, and he wonders if that's really a bad thing. "Yeah."

"Promise that you'll be you forever," she says, reaching for him and carding a hand through his hair.

He grins impishly and turns her logic back on her. "It's physically impossible for me to _become_ another _person_ , you know-" She swats him and he laughs at her as she shakes her head.

She tugs at his shirt, and then tugs on his hair. "Promise," she says, fixing her hurricane gaze on him earnestly, and because he's never been able to say no to her when she's like this, bright eyed and eager, he nods.

"Yes," he rasps. "Yes." She smiles at him, and scoots closer, resting her head on his heart and her hair fans over his face. He breathes her in. "Annabeth?"

"Hmm," she says, nuzzling into his chest, sleepy and soft. Her lips part when she sighs contentedly. He feels himself leaning in, and in, and in, before he shakes himself, because this is _Annabeth_.

"You'll stay you too, right?" he says around the lump forming in his throat. She doesn't answer, and when he looks down, her eyes are closed. She puts her foot under his calf and buries her face in the crook of his neck, sighing again. He closes his eyes and smiles. This is enough for him. For now.

; ; ; ;

notes: okay, so i might not continue and i know this is a little shorter than my other drabbles, but please review because you know how comments make me warm and fuzzy inside, and to my followers/fans(?) who regularly do so, thank you so very much!


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